


Birdsong

by Dark_heika



Series: Daily Prompt Challenges [2]
Category: Tokyo Ghoul
Genre: But it brought the scene that started this to mind, Doesn't actually have that much to do with the prompt, Gen, In which Touka overthinks things, so whatever
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-04
Updated: 2015-01-04
Packaged: 2018-03-05 05:53:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 552
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3108497
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dark_heika/pseuds/Dark_heika
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>She didn't understand.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Birdsong

_“You’re beautiful...”_

The words haunted her. Softly spoken, they’d echoed across the suddenly-silent church like nothing during the fight had.

Perhaps it was the sheer wrongness of them. That Nishiki’s girlfriend could say them, staring death in the eyes. She’d been blindfolded, not deafened. Surely she’d heard Touka’s intent to kill her?

What could she possible find beautiful about something so blatantly meant to kill?

Her eyes slid back to the curtain of ethereal glow of her kagune half-curled around her, as though to protect her from the late autumn chill. Tried to appreciate the many colors shimmering against the dark night sky. Imagined herself, bloodstained, kakugan exposed, the single ‘wing’ ready to strike behind her...

She couldn’t see it.

She couldn’t understand it.

(She thought of Nishiki’s girlfriend again, who’d let a ghoul eat her for his sake. Of Nagachika, Kaneki's friend, who’d started coming to their shop more and more often the more Kaneki tried to distance himself from him, and had easily been their most frequent human customer for the past several weeks. Would he still chase the half-ghoul with such determination if he knew the truth? Or would he laugh it off and tell his friend he was stupid for keeping it from him?

She didn’t know anymore.)

The first human to discover her... it had only taken one. And then her entire family had been torn apart. It was the standard response everywhere you look: find a ghoul? Call the CCG. Watch them get hunted down like dogs, or maybe just walk away, going on with your daily life, and ignore that it was your friend, neighbor, lover that you had just sentenced to death.

It was there everywhere you looked.

What did Nishiki do... why was he so different?

(She thought of Yoriko – sweet, naive Yoriko, who she wasn’t always sure remembered ghouls existed at all. Always one shortcut away from being reduced to so much blood on the walls and so many tattered pieces of flesh in the name of temporarily sating the hunger of a monster wearing human skin.)

As the eastern sky grew lighter, she stood, flexing the liquid muscle one last time before leaping away.

It wouldn’t do for some early-morning jogger to spot her.

* * *

“Touka-chan, are you alright?”

She looked up at Yoriko, blinking. “I’m fine. Why?”

Her friend poked her shoulder. “You weren’t paying attention in class.” She slid into the chair next to her. “What are you thinking about?”

The best lies were woven from half-truths.

“Something someone said, yesterday.”

Yoriko gasped. “What? Who? What did they say?”

Touka shrugged.

“Whatever it was, you shouldn’t let it bother you! You’re amazing, Touka-chan! Really!”

And there it was again.

She forced a small smile to her lips. “Thanks, Yoriko.” The blonde looked like she was ready to reassure her again, so she spoke before she could.

(She thought of Nishiki’s girlfriend, who thought a ghoul seconds away from killing her was beautiful, despite the barely healed wound on her shoulder from the when her own boyfriend tried to kill her. Of Nagachika, who’d recently taken to ordering black coffee every so often with the strangest look on his face, claiming he wanted to try to get what Kaneki saw in the stuff.)

“You’re a good friend.”

She just didn’t understand.

**Author's Note:**

> Remember how, in my last note, I mentioned that it was my first serious attempt at writing Hide and Kaneki? Well, this is my first first attempt at writing Touka. Good for me, right?
> 
> More introspective this time. But hey, the prompt was birdsong, and it's Tokyo Ghoul. What do you expect?


End file.
